Year in Review: When Te Kūiti’s Jack Fagan won A$20,000 for 19.78 seconds’ shearing

King Country shearers Floyd Neil (left), from Taumarunui, and Jack Fagan, of Te Kuiti, after Fagan won the A$20,000 Oberon Quick Shear in New South Wales in February 2025. Neil won in 2024.

The Country looks back at some of the biggest and best stories of the past 12 months, including readers’ favourites, news events and those yarns that gave us a glimpse into rural lives and livelihoods across the country.

This story by Doug Laing was originally published on February 10.

Te Kūiti shearer Jack Fagan has picked up world shearing’s richest cash prize in a lightning transtasman trip to win the Oberon Quickshear in New South Wales.

In a field stacked with shearers from New Zealand, some based in Australia, Fagan won A$20,000 (more than $22,000) with a final shear that took only 19.78 seconds – despite the torrential rain around the roofed but open-sided shearing board at the Oberon Show, about 50km south of Bathurst and 180km west of Sydney.

The win also includes a trip to Wales with the Wagga Wagga Speed Shear team, in which he also shore in Wales in July after winning the Wagga Wagga event three months earlier.

Saturday’s triumph was Fagan’s third win in a week in the shearing sports short form, known in New Zealand as speed shears, and his 74th in the races against the clock in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, all under the watchful eye of qualified judges ensuring the maintenance of quality standards with no half-measures.

Any sheep not up to the standards can be disqualified and mean an early end to the shearer’s dreams; as was the case with Scotsman, Hawke’s Bay farmer, shearer and former Golden Shears and world champion Gavin Mutch.

The top qualifier for the final with a time of 19.68s, Mutch had to settle for sixth money among the six in the prizegiving, after a red light on a 19.84s shear.

That would have otherwise been good enough for the A$4000 second prize; however, that went to the 19.96s of Masterton shearer Paerata Abraham, who on Thursday won a 20-sheep final at the Aria Waitangi Day Sports between Te Kūiti and Taumarunui.

Third was Australia-based Jovan Taiki, of Pōrangahau; fourth was Aria sports shears runner-up, multiple Golden Shears open champion, and 2014 world champion Rowland Smith, of Maraekakāho; and fifth was Australia-based Hemi Power, of Gore.

On February 1, Fagan won the Halcombe Tavern Speed Shear near Feilding, and on Thursday night, he won the Quota Club Speed Shear in Te Kūiti before making the transtasman dash to extend a sequence of Oberon wins for shearers from New Zealand.

Taiki won in 2022, when the first prize leapt from A$5000 to A$10,000, Marton shearer Jimmy Samuels won in 2023, and West Australia-based Floyd Neil, of Taumarunui, was the first winner of the A$20,000 prize last year.

Meanwhile, there’s no let-up in a season of possibly a record number of speed shears in New Zealand, with more than 40 this season and most supporting charitable causes.

These are in addition to 58 shows on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar, including the Golden Shears in Masterton on February 27-March 1, and the New Zealand Shears in Te Kūiti on March 27-29, each including a speed shear event.

Read more shearing and woolhandling stories here.

At least 14 are being held this month, with at least six around the Otago Shears Shearing and Woolhandling Championships that were held on Saturday in a woolshed at Te Houka near Balclutha, and the Southern Shears Shearing and Woolhandling this Friday and Saturday in Gore.

First-year open shearer Forde Alexander, of Taumaranui, won the Aria Cozy Club speed shear on Wednesday night, Mataura shearer Brett “Kornie” Roberts won at the Tokanui Tavern on Thursday night, Southland shearer Cody Smith had his first open speed shear win at the Waihola Swans Speed Shear on Saturday night, and $3500 would be on the line for the winner of the Tuapeka Speed Shear in Lawrence on Sunday night.

The Southern Shears later in the week is the first round of the New Zealand machine shearing and woolhandling 2026 world championships team selection series, with Fagan, Abraham and Rowland Smith all among the entries.

Fagan flew into Auckland before noon on Sunday.